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Monday, November 26, 2012

The $2,000 Wedding

I did my entire wedding for 2,000$. Yes, that's right (and this includes all "parental" donations also!)

What? You may ask, Isn't a cheep wedding, like, 10,000?

Well,
that may be a cheep wedding for you, but we simply didn't have the
funds. We wanted to make our day special, and not a stress to our
pocketbooks!

I'll tell you how I did it.

(Note: the pictures used in this article were taken by my bridesmaid Larkin and my friend Cari! I get my professional ones later on this month and will definitely be sharing!)

1)
We decided to have a small, intimate wedding (less then 50 guests) and we shopped
around for venues. Everything we kept finding was super expensive, but
then we found two places that seemed really cheep. The Aviary rents for about 200$ every four hours. And the Craddock Terry Hotel
(did YOU know hotels do weddings? And beautiful ones to boot?) The
hotel was 500$ for four hours, but included set up and break down in the
price, which The Aviary did not include. We chose the hotel.

2)
We did our "reception" at a lovely Italian restaurant called Monte Carlo. It was 375$, this included a 25$ rental fee for a large party and the food for our guests (about 15 people came to the reception. 25 out of the 50 people we invited came to our wedding).

3) I bought a used dress. I
LOVE my dress. Seriously, I died when I tried it on! It is used, and
fits me P-ER-FEC-TLY. I was stunned to find a dress that needed no
adjustments! I purchased it from the Shopaholics Outlet,
a high end vintage/thrift boutique and bridal warehouse. I also got my
necklace, earrings, and circlet there. All together it was 350$. They
gave me the necklace as a gift, as they are dear friends of mine :)

*I
got my shoes from a Facebook Yard sale page. Lol, anyone? They were
10$, and are from Jcrew. I love them! I also did my own hair. I basically did two braids around the back of my head and added flowers everywhere

4) I (blush) spend 100$ at Victoria's Secret. No scrimping was allowed in this area!

5)
My dad paid for half of the photographer's bill. It was my friend Beth!
Who else? She's amazing. I paid her 250$ and my dad paid the other
250$. Beth was
invaluable this night. We stayed at the hotel along with my maid of honor Larkin and another one of my friends.

6)
I made a few signs, and I used a
basket I already had for cards. I wrote and printed our ceremony programs
for 5$ at one of those copy stores.

7) I used an automated web-sight to make our invitations. Our wedding invitations were 50$ from shutterfly. I designed them myself with my engagement photos, which we also took ourselves. (Tripod and camera remote FTW!)

8) We paid our pastor 50$ (The standard for VA wedding, following the
law) and my husband tipped him. I don't know how much, in all the
excitement I never asked :)

9) Our cakes were made by a friend of my maid of honor. They were 30$ each. :) I chose a white cake with a lovely rose design all over it.

Thats
about it; thats our wedding in a nut shell. It was beautiful, lovely,
and amazing. I am so happy to be married and I think I'm the luckiest
girl in the world! :)

My $2000 wedding did not include the premarital we took, or our honeymoon (both of these my husband took care of and I don't know how much he spent). I also took some of my friends and my bridesmaids out to get their nails done. :)

You can have a lovely and memorable wedding and not spend an arm and a leg! There is no sense starting your life off together in a big pile of debt.

Friends

Disclosure

Carolynn Markey is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.